CELEBRATING THE HOLIDAYS: V Christmas Cards

The theme of the past few posts has been about the things Holiday Homesick missionaries do to keep from being so homesick.  One thing that is very satisfying for me is sending and receiving Christmas cards.  I LOVE sending them, thinking of each recipient as I address the card and the good memories I have of the times we spent together, whether it was very recent or many years ago.  It reminds me of a Girl Scout song I learned as a kid.  We sang it in rounds - Make New Friends.  In case you don't go to the link, the words are:

Make new friends,

but keep the old.

One is silver 

 the other's gold.

Besides sending Christmas Cards, I LOVE receiving them.  I love all kinds of Christmas cards, traditional cards, Christmas letters, Christmas cards with family pictures, and yes, even the electronic cards.  And being away from home this Christmas made them even dearer to me than ever. 

Every single card we received was a treasure, but we were especially touched by the one in the picture below.  It arrived very early in December addressed to Elder and Sister Watts.

On the left side of the card was the following scripture:

And his name shall be called

Wonderful, Counsellor,

The mighty God,

The everlasting Father

The Prince of Peace

ISAIAH 9:6

On the right side of the card was the following message:

May the peace and joy of this Christmas season be in your hearts and homes as we celebrate the birth and mission of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

And it was signed by The First Presidency (of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  It also had their picture below the message.  We know it was sent to all the missionaries and that they didn't individually sign it, but we love it anyway.  It will always be a reminder of our mission Christmas.